Diary of an Insurer: Consilium’s Roxy Zeb

Monday 

I would love to say I’m a morning person but that would be a lie. I live in the Midlands, work in London and travel to Dublin, where I am helping clients drive growth in the aviation market. Every week is different.

Mondays are typically spent working from home unless I’m travelling to Ireland. 

Once my stepson is dropped off to school, the other having just started university last year, I get on with what I call my focus time; working on tenders, research, catching-up on emails, and keeping in touch with clients, prospects and my Consilium colleagues.

I’m four months into my role at Consilium, and I am loving every minute of it. The culture of the company is unique, and the people are great. It’s been a great decision for me to move away from typical big company corporate culture. 

It’s made a huge difference to my work-life balance and has confirmed that I was right to move back to the UK, after 10 years working in the Australian insurance markets, living in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Tuesday

I’m up at 4.30am. I leave the house at 5.30am to get the train down to London, and I’m at my desk by 8.30am.

I’m not in the office for long though, as I thrive on meeting up with clients face-to-face. For me this is always the best way to connect with people and build relationships. Nothing beats a catch up over a coffee to bring that all-important human level to meetings. 

On the days I am in London I try to catch-up with as many clients as possible and will move hell and high water to be where they are, so the long commute to London is definitely worthwhile.

I’m back in the office late afternoon, for a catch-up with the rest of the professional and executive risks team, talking through our respective clients and looking at ways we can support each other to deliver unique solutions. 

We’re highly focussed right now on building out our speciality capabilities both in terms of product innovation and international reach. It’s a real team effort, and it’s delivering some great results both for our clients and for our business.

Wednesday

I’m up early again and at my desk by 8.30am. My focus today is diversity, equity, and inclusion. I’m passionate about inspiring change. 

In my previous life in Australia, I was part of the first indigenous working group at Marsh, working with schools, charities, and communities to support education initiatives that attract indigenous people into the insurance market.

Back in the UK, Consilium is 100% behind my desire to drive change in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

The group have started a DE&I committee that meets every couple of weeks to keep momentum moving in terms of driving even greater intersectionality in hiring, attracting, and supporting female talent, and looking at ways we can be even more supportive of the diverse needs of our team in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, and neurodiversity.

I am also working on various initiatives, both internal and external to support mentees as part of various mentoring schemes. I have benefitted from mentoring and reverse mentoring throughout my career, and it is a big area of focus and investment at Consilium.  

Inspiring people is a passion I share with the rest of the Consilium, and wider Aventum team. 

Thursday

This morning I’m meeting with some of the wide range of experts we have in the professional and executive risks team. 

I have meetings with both our fintech experts and asset/wealth management specialists. These one-to-ones are great opportunities to collaborate and find ways to build out everyone’s individual portfolios.

After lunch I head out to a client meeting, before jumping on the train back home to the Midlands. 

We are a very active family, and my husband I travel for work, so we are always finding ways to stay healthy. Before dinner I get in a quick yoga session. Then it’s an early night for all of us. Tomorrow, I have a personal training session at the crack of dawn at the local gym.

Friday

I’m working at home today. After my early morning PT session, I crack on with more focus tasks. 

I’m off to Dublin on Monday to meet with my aviation clients, so much of the day is spent prepping for meetings and discussing with the rest team how we can keep moving our clients forward in terms of delivering a tailored approach to their specific risk exposures – in this instance aviation leasing.   

When I finish work, my husband and I head straight off to our renovation project. We love property renovations, and I enjoy any opportunity to indulge my creative side.  The weekend will mostly be spent with a paintbrush in hand.